Media and Backup Server

[ces160]

Hi every one,

 

I would like to build and ultimate home media and system back up server.

 

I have already decided on what RAID card and level I would like to use, either the Adaptec RAID 7805 or the LSI MegaRAID SAS 9271-8i in RAID 6 with 8 * 4TB WD Red drives for a total of 24 TB of usable storage.

 

What I cant decide on is a good CPU and mother board combo for this rig.

 

I would like it to be able to server at least 4 devices with 1080p video concurrently (at the same time).

 

I was considering using the AMD 8350 as this is an 8 core chip and will allow the rig to handle multiple on the fly encodes. However, the AM3+ chipset does not support PCIE 3.0 which is required for the RAID cards I have selected ( I have had a look around the interwebs and the RAID cards don't work with PCIE 2.0. The previous generations do, but moving forward I don't want to buy a RAID card that is out of date and have to deal with new hardware and drives that are not supported). 

 

So that's it, What is a good CPU and mother board combo that will get the job done? Will 4 cores be enough? Will 2 cores be enough? AMD or Intel? Will hyper threading be better than a CPU with more physical cores?

 

Also if the motherboard could have a good integrated Intel nic that would be great (suggestions on a add in nic are also welcome).

 

Not to worried about price but something reasonable (Try to keep it under $500AUD). 

 

Thanks

[ErrorNumber419]

If you are trying to do live transcoding for your four streams (plex), go with a quad core (i5 or similar). If you are looking to serve them up locally and you don't need to transcode them (xbmc), then a dual core will be fine.

 

I ran a home server for years off of a 1.5ghz dual core AMD (HP N40L). Used it mainly for XBMC locally as well as serving files anywhere from 2 to 15GB to my four roommates also running XBMC. We never noticed a slow down off of that or the single gigabit connection.
 

 

A good way to save system resources is to run a lightweight OS like xUbuntu or something similar. Linux can be tricky to set up but it is super reliable and light weight. It also plays nice with remote connections, ftp and samba, as well as being fairly secure. Windows Server is nice, but not quite as resource friendly.

 

 

Nothing I mentioned requires very much ram, so don't feel like you have to stick a lot of money into huge amounts of that. 8GB was way more than enough for my system, it's not like file handling is very difficult. Even the official Plex website says not to really worry about ram.

[ces160]

If you are trying to do live transcoding for your four streams (plex), go with a quad core (i5 or similar). If you are looking to serve them up locally and you don't need to transcode them (xbmc), then a dual core will be fine.

 

I ran a home server for years off of a 1.5ghz dual core AMD (HP N40L). Used it mainly for XBMC locally as well as serving files anywhere from 2 to 15GB to my four roommates also running XBMC. We never noticed a slow down off of that or the single gigabit connection.

 

 

A good way to save system resources is to run a lightweight OS like xUbuntu or something similar. Linux can be tricky to set up but it is super reliable and light weight. It also plays nice with remote connections, ftp and samba, as well as being fairly secure. Windows Server is nice, but not quite as resource friendly.

 

 

Nothing I mentioned requires very much ram, so don't feel like you have to stick a lot of money into huge amounts of that. 8GB was way more than enough for my system, it's not like file handling is very difficult. Even the official Plex website says not to really worry about ram.

Thanks for the reply, I might have a look at one of the lower power i5. 

[ErrorNumber419]

For a home media server, you probably wont be looking at server grade components. A happy medium would be something like a B85 TUF series board from Asus. Great validation and testing, great warranty, great fan control, and a good solid NIC to boot.

 

My newer home server/ htps is a Z97 Sabertooth, Haswell Pentium around 3GHz can't remember exactly, 8GB of DDR3, a 500W PSU, and a pile of hard drives.

 

Runs xbmc on top of xubuntu. Works as my home server and XBMC HTPC, does everything I ask it to.

[ces160]

Thanks for the reply, I might have a look at one of the lower power i5. 

 

 

For a home media server, you probably wont be looking at server grade components. A happy medium would be something like a B85 TUF series board from Asus. Great validation and testing, great warranty, great fan control, and a good solid NIC to boot.

 

My newer home server/ htps is a Z97 Sabertooth, Haswell Pentium around 3GHz can't remember exactly, 8GB of DDR3, a 500W PSU, and a pile of hard drives.

 

Runs xbmc on top of xubuntu. Works as my home server and XBMC HTPC, does everything I ask it to.

 

Have been looking around and have found a CPU and mother board combo that I think might be OK;

 

i5 4460 and the Gigabyte GA-Z97X-SLI Motherboard for $394AUD + postage. 

 

This is the cheapest board that I could find that used PCIE gen 3.0 on both of the X16 slots (i might get a second of the RAID cards down the track). 

 

What do you guys think? Have I missed something?